Mission statement: On this blog we explore why homeschooling can be a better option for children and families than a traditional classroom setting. We'll also explore homeschooling issues in general, educational thoughts, family issues, and some other random stuff.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Are we educational John Galts?

Around seventeen or eighteen I read AynRand's massive book AtlasShrugged. I liked some of the things she said like we should use reason to make decisions and that government and society should not force people to sacrifice themselves for others. I disagree that there is no God and it is OK for people to sleep around.

One of the main threads of Atlas Shrugged is JohnGalt goes around encouraging those who to produce to go on strike. As more movers and shakers walk away from their businesses, society starts to fall apart.

----------David Page says the problem is that parents are on their own. Teachers have a union. So do principals. School board members get to vote plans up or down and top administrators make decisions in the salmon-pink offices of San Diego Unified.But parents are often too intimidated to speak up or too star-struck with school staffers to question them, Page said. Education is a world loaded with its own numbing lingo -- categorical funding, supplement not supplant, program improvement -- and it seems overwhelming to understand it, let alone to fight it."They think, 'They make six figures and they're educated. Who am I to second guess them?'" Page said.----------

David Page sounds like a great guy. He has spent years trying to improve public schools. But public schools just keep getting worse and worse. I don't have any faith that government schools, the way they are currently set up, will ever get better.

Maybe at some point the David Pages in our society will give up, and more and more parents will turn to private schools and homeschooling. If a large movement develops, then I think government schools will be questioned, challenged, and maybe even discarded.

1 comment:

We are educational John Galts. Home schooling is a movement that is defined by individual choice. We choose our path outside of the public sector. We reject the idea that learning is the property of public schools. We are truly independent people who are often active in other ways aimed at achieving independence.